Homemade Laundry Detergent...Again!

Ok, I know I just posted a recipe for laundry detergent, but I just finished a new batch with a different ingredient. This time it is PINK.

Here it is:

BORAX

WASHING SODA

ZOTE SOAP

& OXYCLEAN (or, rather, the Dollar Tree version)

Here's the deal. I couldn't find FELS NAPTHA at the Kroger here (although the one I used for my first batch was purchased at Kroger, so maybe I'll ask them to order it?), so I decided to see if I could find the other soap that is commonly mentioned in the detergent recipes: ZOTE SOAP.

You may be able to find it at your local grocery store, but I had to go to a Mexican store (the soap is made in Mexico) to find mine. It cost $1 and they only had pink (the company that makes Zote Soap also makes a white bar), which is kind of fun, right? Pink soap!

The basic instructions are the same as before:
Grate the soap

I found that the Zote Soap--while softer--also took longer to grate. It seemed to me to be at least two times the size as the Fels Naptha. I tried a few different graters.

After the initial grating, the Zote Soap makes quite a bit more than the Fels Naptha. The catch? It's not as dry.

So--DAY 1: Grate the soap

DAY 2: Dry the soap
I had mine spread out on 6 different surfaces. I don't think you have to lay it out in such thin layers (when my Mom did Zote, she just put it all out to dry in 1 pan and turned it randomly during the day).

Side note: Here's a picture to prove that the soap makes suds. For those of you who need to see the suds (ahem, sweet Mr. H)...here are the suds from when I washed my grater & bowl:

DAY 3: The dried soap will have shrunk a bit, this is how mine measured:

I read someone's recipe online who grated theirs even more using their food processor. I decided to try it. (Tip: leave the lid on a minute or so after grinding otherwise you'll have a face full of fine soap powder-yuck)

After grinding the final zote soap measurement was a little over 2 cups.

Just as before, mix it with the other ingredients (2-3 cups BORAX, 2-3 cups WASHING SODA, 2 cups OXYCLEAN). I did about 2 cups each, totalling about 8 cups for the entire mixture.

You only need to use 1 tablespoon for a typical load of laundry (2 for a large or very dirty load), which means the batch I finished today (about 8 cups) will make 128 'typical' loads.

TA-DA!

Here is the Zote Soap mix next to the Fels Naptha mix:

Mr. H was asking me the benefits of one mix over the other. The Fels Naptha soap bar costs about the same as the Zote Soap (around $1), but the Zote Soap takes more time & effort. You may prefer pink over yellow...don't forget Zote Soap also comes in white, so there is that option as far as color goes. I haven't done loads with both to compare--but according to everything I've read online--both of these are excellent recipes for both clean, fresh laundry AND saving lots of $!

Happy Laundering!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Ever since my mother started experimenting with recipes to make her own laundry detergent, I have been curious. A few weeks ago, I began to use one recipe (6 squirts of simple green + a scoop of washing soda) that I thought was easy and worked well, but I wanted to make this one, it seemed so much more *authentic*.


There are several recipes online, so you just have to pick one and go with it.


This one requires:

BORAX

WASHING SODA

& FELS NAPTHA

(made by Dial soap: Mom has found it at both Kroger & Publix)

The only 'labor' involved is grating the soap (Fels Naptha). A cheese grater works, the smaller the grate, the better.

Grate. Grate. Grate.

Once you have your bar of Fels Naptha grated, you are ready to mix...

...all three ingredients together:

The finished product:

When I got home I also added 1 cup of Oxyclean (although I use the Dollar Tree brand: LA's Totally Awesome Oxygen Base Cleaner) to my mixture (some of the online recipes add that as well). You can kind of make up your own mixture once you know the basic ingredients.

A link that has a basic recipe, but there are others like this one (which includes liquid detergent recipes as well), so browse around online if you want to know what people are using.

According to my very intelligent mother, the recipe I made ends up costing less than 5 cents a load!

Go ye therefore and be frugal!